ECP orders PTI to produce financial record by Sept 7

Rejects party’s application to stay proceedings

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday rejected an application by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to stay proceedings of the foreign funding case and ordered the party to produce the long-sought financial record by September 7.

The foreign funding case was filed by Akbar S Babar, a founder PTI member, in November 2014 after he developed differences with party chairman Imran Khan over alleged corruption within the party and violation of laws in collection and use of party funds.

As the hearing of the foreign funding case resumed on Wednesday, PTI lawyer Anwar Mansur Khan submitted a stay application, seeking to suspend the proceedings.

He argued that the Supreme Court had taken cognisance of the matter where the ECP is also a respondent. The proceedings should, therefore, be suspended until the Supreme Court’s final judgement in that case, he requested the CEC.

Mansur said the ECP lawyer had submitted a detailed statement on the foreign funding case with the apex court, showing the electoral body’s bias. The CEC asked how narrating a fact sheet of the case could be construed as bias. He also asked the PTI lawyer why the party had not sought a stay order from the Supreme Court.



The petitioner’s lawyer Syed Ahmed Hasan narrated a long list of PTI attempts to delay the case. He said the PTI had disregarded about 21 ECP orders and refused to comply with them on one pretext or the other. He said the latest attempt to stay proceedings came on the heels of their commitment to proceed with the case on a daily basis.

The petitioner’s lawyer said the PTI must not be allowed to make a mockery of the entire justice system. The case had been pending since November 2014, with the PTI continuing to refuse production of documents and accounts sought by the ECP since April 2015, he added.

Hasan argued that the prayer of the case in the Supreme Court was different from the foreign funding case. In the foreign funding case, he continued, evidence had been presented of prohibited funds received by the PTI from the US and concealment of accounts in the UK and elsewhere.

He said a PTI Special Audit Report had already verified his client’s allegations of financial impropriety.



The ECP announced the judgement after a short break and rejected the PTI stay application. In a short order, the ECP announced that the PTI must comply with the production of documents by September 7 when hearing of the case would resume.